Government Lawyers' Ethical Duties: Staying Current Amid 21st Century Changes

Wendy J. Muchman joined the law school faculty in 2014 as a Lecturer. She was formerly an Adjunct Professor of Legal Ethics at Northwestern from 2000 to 2014 and has taught Legal Ethics courses at other Chicago law schools.

Professor Muchman currently is the Chief of Litigation and Professional Education at the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois. She investigates and prosecutes lawyer disciplinary cases, including In re Rinella, 175 Ill.2d 504, 677 N.E.2d 909 (1997). Her job responsibilities also include supervision and training of all litigation attorneys and staff at the ARDC. She regularly lectures and presents workshops regarding professional responsibility and disciplinary law to various bar association groups, law firms, judges and law schools.

Professor Muchman serves as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for the regional and national trial advocacy, deposition and National Organization of Bar Counsel programs. She serves as an assistant team leader for the NITA Trial Advocacy Midwest Regional Program. In 2013, she was selected to participate as a fellow in the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professional Responsibilty. In 2012, she was elected member-at-large to the Council of the American Bar Association Government and Public Lawyers Division where she stills serves. Between 2009 and 2011, she served as the Vice-Chair, then Chair, of the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Professional Responsibility. Prior to 1989 when she started her employment at the Commission, Professor Muchman litigated in the state and federal courts. Areas of practice included insurance litigation, civil rights, age discrimination and aviation defense work.

Professor Muchman received her JD from DePaul University College of Law and her BA from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana.

Lawrence Fox is the George W. and Sadella D. Crawford Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and a partner of Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Gerber LLP in New York City where he practices in the areas of professional responsibility and corporate governance.

He is a former chairman of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and a former chairman of the ABA’s Section of Litigation. Mr. Fox is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught law at Cornell, The University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. He has lectured at more than 35 law schools, and is the author and co-author of seven books on professional responsibility and dozens of articles on many topics related to both ethics and litigation. He was a lawyer at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP for 45 years.

Paula J. Frederick is general counsel for the state bar of Georgia and chair for the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. Ms. Frederick heads a 10-lawyer office responsible for interpreting the ethics rules for lawyers, prosecuting lawyer discipline cases and providing legal advice to the officers and directors of the bar. She is the author of a bimonthly column for the Georgia Bar Journal and frequently speaks on issues of lawyer ethics and professionalism.

Prior to her work at the State Bar of Georgia, she spent six years as a lawyer with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, handling civil legal matters. Ms. Frederick is a past president of the Atlanta Bar Association and Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys. She is a past chair of both the ABA Diversity Center and the Standing Committee on Professional Discipline. She currently serves as a Georgia State delegate in the House of Delegates.

Ms. Frederick earned her B.A. in political science from Duke University. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law.